False Accusations and Suicide: Some Headlines about the Effects of Finger-Pointing and Legal Abuse (Culled for the Empathically Challenged)

Moderator

Since the publication of this post, the one quoted above has been deleted.

One of the stories highlighted below concerns a young man who was falsely labeled a rapist by some bullies at school. He hanged himself. He was 16. Another concerns a man who spent a year and a half in prison based on a false accusation of sexual assault (among other false accusations). While the man was behind bars, his mother killed herself, believing her son was a pimp and a rapist.

A word to the wise: Only ask a rhetorical question if you know the answer…and it favors your position.

The question posed above by the zealous, young author of Not Sorry Feminism isn’t, of course, a question at all; it’s an indictment. She means how dare anyone think false accusations happen. What problematizes the writer’s rhetorical-question-cum-admonition is that it has a very obvious answer: The reason people think false accusations “happen” (so to speak) is that they do.

(It might alternatively be asserted that no one does believe false accusations “happen,” the same way no one believes rapes “happen.” Both are acts, and both have agents. If rape happens isn’t a construction a feminist could get behind, false accusations happen shouldn’t be, either. You’re a proponent of accountability, or you’re not.)

Worse than her question’s being problematic, because answerable, is that its answer isn’t one the writer wants to hear. Motives for false accusations, including of rape, are greed, malice, bullying, vengeance, jealousy, possessiveness, attention-seeking, mental illness, and cover-up, to name a few. They’re ugly, often petty, always destructive…and they can kill.

This post surveys examples of false allegations or deadly allegations or false and deadly allegations drawn from news stories. Here’s one such:

Unlike most of the rest, the first story glossed in this hastily cobbled digital scrapbook doesn’t include a suicide or references to suicide. It’s nevertheless a good starting point, because it’s old news.

The article’s from 15 years ago. Fifteen. Significantly, though, no half-hearted sleuth would find it a challenge today to turn up commentaries on the Internet, mostly from feminist writers like the one who introduces this post, that either (1) deny such a thing ever happens or (2) deny it’s a big deal when it does happen—and deny it’s a sign that a culture of false accusation exists and has for some time. (A story so uncannily similar as to be almost identical can be found here. It appeared in The Huffington Post less than 24 months ago.)

Consider: Where would six elementary school girls and a boy get the idea of framing their gym teacher as a molester, and where would they get the impression this conduct was okay (or “cool”) or that they’d get away with it and not face dire consequences? Should we believe the notion had no cultural influences and was purely a product of these honors students’ collective wicked imagination?

For accusing their teacher of groping them, the kids were suspended for 10 days. It’s likely the most traumatic part of their punishment was being detained by police and “fingerprinted, photographed, [and] booked.” Keep this thought in mind.

Keep this quotation in mind, too: “‘When they made the charge, that’s about 80 percent of the damage to your reputation right there,’ [attorney Paul F.] Kemp said. ‘Because even if you’re found innocent, people will assume you got off on a technicality. Or that there’s something there when there’s not.’”

Editorial intrusions end here; the remainder of this post is a series of Internet clippings (linked to the “complete stories”) from which readers may draw their own conclusions about the motives and effects of accusation, bullying, and legal abuse. The author of this post would only point out before absenting himself that an accusation that may induce someone to kill him- or herself need not be of rape and that one of the suicides chronicled below is of a woman who faced being tried for falsely alleging she was sexually assaulted (“In notes left for her family, she described her overwhelming fear of giving evidence…”).

The common denominator is accusation and public scrutiny and judgment, not being accused of a particular act, per se. Zerlina Maxwell and her ilk are categorically wrong.

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Copyright © 2015 RestrainingOrderAbuse.com

11 thoughts on “False Accusations and Suicide: Some Headlines about the Effects of Finger-Pointing and Legal Abuse (Culled for the Empathically Challenged)”

  2. Ibdontvknow what else to do .I’m need help
    . I’m nor going to make it out of frprrddion ,and only waste aesy fighting a fuc up lable I’m not guilty of. For what ever title time I of herring. Peade help.if you wamtvjustive.an injustices to one is one to all

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    1. Darrell, I can’t tell what your situation is. If you’re facing accusations made on a restraining order form, keep these things in mind: (1) the person accusing you doesn’t have to prove anything; (2) the judge will rule according to which one of you makes a stronger impression; (3) the behavior of your accuser isn’t what the judge will be paying attention to, and your accuser can’t get in trouble.

      So if you can’t afford a lawyer, and you have to speak for yourself, a good approach is to focus on the accusations against you and tell/show the judge how they are false and why they were falsely made. The judge won’t care who you are, what your background with the accuser is, etc. Keep that stuff brief and focus on showing how the accusations are lies. Be humble, respectful, and direct. You can say, “The allegations, Your Honor, are false,” and then explain what you mean and what you believe the reasons are that the person who accused you is lying.

      Sometimes this can be shown by questioning the person who accused you. You are allowed to do this. Questions you ask may reveal something the accuser has said to the court is a lie, or the person’s answer may show what the real motives behind the accusations are.

      Is there anyone who could help you? Friends, family, witnesses?

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  3. Probate Examiner

    With all due respect I ask that the Guardianship of Alexis Lynn Bradley be Investigated on the grounds under Probate Code Section 1601 as evidence has been submitted the Guardian has shown failure to provide a safe environment for my daughter Alexis Lynn Bradley by allowing her husband Brian Roger Brown D.O.B. 7/2/73 a lifetime registered Felon Sex offender ( See Exhibit A -1 & 2 currently registered with Santa Rosa Police Department) not only into the home but left Him alone with my Daughter unsupervised for the entire length of this guardianship. I feel that her failure to report this to the courts was an effort to protect her husband Brian Roger Brown and not her niece Alexis as she claimed to do in Petition for Appointment of Guardianof Minor(Form GC-210) I was just informed by the Santa Rosa Police Department that Randi and Brian Brown are prop215 patients and currently growing Marijuana at 2254 yucca street. Santa Rosa ca where my daughter Alexis resides with Guardian Randi Lynn Brown and her husband Brian Roger Brown. Now I realize it is Legal as informed by S.R.P.D, when I reported it but again is this in my daughters best interest?
    I would like the courts decision both to award guardianship and deny all previous attempts to terminate Guardianship in mention Investigated for the following reasons.
    After thorough research of case files available to me, I found numerous statements of abuse and neglect that may even involve my daughter Alexis. Although all the statements submitted in this case, (including those from the guardian) do not seem to implicate me. ( See Exhibit’s B – 1 – 21), all these exhibits I copied from submitted court files, although when the case crossed Judge Nancy Shaffers desk first thing she did was advise us that if there is any evidence that we want to remove from file we have the opportunity to do it now. (I still don’t understand what that was about)The copies marked (Exhibit’s B – 11 – 15) may not be in court files any longer as they lead to be incriminating to Mrs. Brown. As Alexis father I ask why this guardianship was not rejected in 2008 for failure to show cause? It has become blatantly obvious that there is something in that file that no one has given me access to, that the court has decided without due process that I’m guilty of.
    I am aware that when jurisdiction is not squarely challenged, the subject matter is presumed to exist. I cannot rebut an unstated presumption. The court will take notice that “…irrebuttable presumptions have long been disfavored under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.” Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U.S. 441. (1973) “And … further the supreme Court ruled that as such an irrebuttable presumption constitutes a denial of due process and is therefore unconstitutional.” Authority: Cleveland Board of Education v La Fleur (1974) 414 US 632, 39 L.Ed 2d 52, 94 S.Ct 791.
    I have been told several times that I waived my right that I wasn’t served notice of the original hearing of the guardianship in mention. (See Exhibit C – 1 & 2) I am aware that, “Because of what appears to be a lawful command on the surface, many citizens, because of their respect for what only appears to be a law, are cunningly coerced into waiving their rights, due to ignorance.” as found in US vs. Minker, 350 U.S. 179, p.187.
    Now since the courts have not been given proof beyond a reasonable doubt that I have committed any crime (that I am aware of and my civil right to know if such proof exists) I would ask that the reports of the previous Judges in this case be redetermined as I have stated all along I don’t feel that their decision complied with their sworn oath to remain impartial. 28 U.S. Code § 453 , but rather with a misconception of misleading evidence, statements or improper investigation of case #040912 between Alexis Bradley’s mother Tami Bradley and Myself back in 2006.
    United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, “It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442. (1950). Also found in Perry v. United States, 204 U.S. 330, 358.
    The burden of proof is entirely on the state and there is no duty on the defendant to assist the state in discharging its burden. This burden of proof applies to each and every element of the crime. In In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970), the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that the presumption of innocence is a constitutional principle which is binding on the states, saying that “the Due Process clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged.” Thus far the burden of proof has been on my shoulders, and every effort to bring the truth out has been met with extreme retaliation from the guardian in mention..

    This case crossed Judge Bertoli’s bench one time years ago and He stood with respect for both parties and couldn’t seem to make sense of what was going on. Judge Bertoli protected my daughter Christina and defended my Civil Rights as her father on 4/08/15 in courtroom 12 case number SPR-87653. So Judge Bertoli has proven Himself as a man of Integrity and I trust His Judgment.
    I do not feel safe filing a termination of guardianship as every attempt I have taken to expose what is really going on has been met with severe retaliation from the Guardian Randi Brown, including false reports to C.P.S. Restraining orders against me that were later thrown out of court, attacks on my personal character. All of which just caused me anger and frustration, that I ultimately ended up acting irrationally in court and mediation, especially when trying to explain this to the court mediator who in turn looked me in the eye and stated “ I don’t know why your telling me this I already told you nobody cares.” Please take into consideration I have never been Questioned, Detained, Arrested, Tried, Convicted or Sentenced for ANY crime. The fact still remains that as of this day no one has ever even told me why my daughter Alexis was taken to begin with. I am submitting my observations in hope the court can provide me with some clarity of these proceedings and that together we may find a solution and a safe place for my daughter Alexis if the court still determines that She be returned home with me her biological father.
    All Due Respect.
    Lenny D. Bradley

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  4. I KNOW EXACTLY HOW THESE PEOPLE FEEL AND MY CASE STILL ISNT OVER!
    Probate Examiner

    With all due respect I ask that the Guardianship of Alexis Lynn Bradley be Investigated on the grounds under Probate Code Section 1601 as evidence has been submitted the Guardian has shown failure to provide a safe environment for my daughter Alexis Lynn Bradley by allowing her husband Brian Roger Brown D.O.B. 7/2/73 a lifetime registered Felon Sex offender ( See Exhibit A -1 & 2 currently registered with Santa Rosa Police Department) not only into the home but left Him alone with my Daughter unsupervised for the entire length of this guardianship. I feel that her failure to report this to the courts was an effort to protect her husband Brian Roger Brown and not her niece Alexis as she claimed to do in Petition for Appointment of Guardianof Minor(Form GC-210) I was just informed by the Santa Rosa Police Department that Randi and Brian Brown are prop215 patients and currently growing Marijuana at 2254 yucca street. Santa Rosa ca where my daughter Alexis resides with Guardian Randi Lynn Brown and her husband Brian Roger Brown. Now I realize it is Legal as informed by S.R.P.D, when I reported it but again is this in my daughters best interest?
    I would like the courts decision both to award guardianship and deny all previous attempts to terminate Guardianship in mention Investigated for the following reasons.
    After thorough research of case files available to me, I found numerous statements of abuse and neglect that may even involve my daughter Alexis. Although all the statements submitted in this case, (including those from the guardian) do not seem to implicate me. ( See Exhibit’s B – 1 – 21), all these exhibits I copied from submitted court files, although when the case crossed Judge Nancy Shaffers desk first thing she did was advise us that if there is any evidence that we want to remove from file we have the opportunity to do it now. (I still don’t understand what that was about)The copies marked (Exhibit’s B – 11 – 15) may not be in court files any longer as they lead to be incriminating to Mrs. Brown. As Alexis father I ask why this guardianship was not rejected in 2008 for failure to show cause? It has become blatantly obvious that there is something in that file that no one has given me access to, that the court has decided without due process that I’m guilty of.
    I am aware that when jurisdiction is not squarely challenged, the subject matter is presumed to exist. I cannot rebut an unstated presumption. The court will take notice that “…irrebuttable presumptions have long been disfavored under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.” Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U.S. 441. (1973) “And … further the supreme Court ruled that as such an irrebuttable presumption constitutes a denial of due process and is therefore unconstitutional.” Authority: Cleveland Board of Education v La Fleur (1974) 414 US 632, 39 L.Ed 2d 52, 94 S.Ct 791.
    I have been told several times that I waived my right that I wasn’t served notice of the original hearing of the guardianship in mention. (See Exhibit C – 1 & 2) I am aware that, “Because of what appears to be a lawful command on the surface, many citizens, because of their respect for what only appears to be a law, are cunningly coerced into waiving their rights, due to ignorance.” as found in US vs. Minker, 350 U.S. 179, p.187.
    Now since the courts have not been given proof beyond a reasonable doubt that I have committed any crime (that I am aware of and my civil right to know if such proof exists) I would ask that the reports of the previous Judges in this case be redetermined as I have stated all along I don’t feel that their decision complied with their sworn oath to remain impartial. 28 U.S. Code § 453 , but rather with a misconception of misleading evidence, statements or improper investigation of case #040912 between Alexis Bradley’s mother Tami Bradley and Myself back in 2006.
    United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, “It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442. (1950). Also found in Perry v. United States, 204 U.S. 330, 358.
    The burden of proof is entirely on the state and there is no duty on the defendant to assist the state in discharging its burden. This burden of proof applies to each and every element of the crime. In In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970), the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that the presumption of innocence is a constitutional principle which is binding on the states, saying that “the Due Process clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged.” Thus far the burden of proof has been on my shoulders, and every effort to bring the truth out has been met with extreme retaliation from the guardian in mention..

    This case crossed Judge Bertoli’s bench one time years ago and He stood with respect for both parties and couldn’t seem to make sense of what was going on. Judge Bertoli protected my daughter Christina and defended my Civil Rights as her father on 4/08/15 in courtroom 12 case number SPR-87653. So Judge Bertoli has proven Himself as a man of Integrity and I trust His Judgment.
    I do not feel safe filing a termination of guardianship as every attempt I have taken to expose what is really going on has been met with severe retaliation from the Guardian Randi Brown, including false reports to C.P.S. Restraining orders against me that were later thrown out of court, attacks on my personal character. All of which just caused me anger and frustration, that I ultimately ended up acting irrationally in court and mediation, especially when trying to explain this to the court mediator who in turn looked me in the eye and stated “ I don’t know why your telling me this I already told you nobody cares.” Please take into consideration I have never been Questioned, Detained, Arrested, Tried, Convicted or Sentenced for ANY crime. The fact still remains that as of this day no one has ever even told me why my daughter Alexis was taken to begin with. I am submitting my observations in hope the court can provide me with some clarity of these proceedings and that together we may find a solution and a safe place for my daughter Alexis if the court still determines that She be returned home with me her biological father.
    All Due Respect.
    Lenny D. Bradley

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  5. “You don’t actually have to have a legitimate case in order to go to court but many people make the assumption that if they are going to court that this in itself must mean that there’s a legitimate case. They might feel very intimidated and agree to settle and actually, this is what people who pull this rinky dinky BS rely on.”

    http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/being-mistreated-isnt-evidence-that-youve-done-something-wrong/

    –unfortunately, the accusation itself is so damaging to a person’s reputation they can never recover:
    “‘When they made the charge, that’s about 80 percent of the damage to your reputation right there,’ [attorney Paul F.] Kemp said. ‘Because even if you’re found innocent, people will assume you got off on a technicality. Or that there’s something there when there’s not.’”

    The truth is, that unless you’ve been falsely accused or know someone who has, or unless you work in the criminal justice system and see the effects of false accusations everyday, the general public believes that if you’ve been charged with a crime (especially domestic violence, stalking or abuse) people automatically believe that it’s true. And they want blood. Take for example the daily public safety report section of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner:

    http://www.newsminer.com/news/public_safety_report/public-safety-report-april/article_f374dca8-ddc1-11e4-9821-5bda9d2945f6.html

    Here, on this particular day, a young woman named Samantha is charged with assault after her domestic violence abuser called her a bad mother, took her baby and locked himself in the bathroom. Samantha is 19. This public safety report will be printed online in this “news” paper for the rest of the existence of the internet. Her abuser accuses her of scraping the bathroom door with a knife. She states to police that it was her cell phone. Why would this young woman be wielding a knife around her baby? As a victim of false accusations by my abuser, I immediately recognized this police report for what it is: the handy work of a sociopath who uses law enforcement as a tool of abuse. See how he conveniently had a recording of her threatening to commit suicide? Despite her telling police that was from a completely seperate incident, it is now being used against her in a court of law. Calling a woman a bad mother is an act of domestic violence in the form of verbal and emotional abuse. Provoking this woman to threaten suicide — then using it against her to make her appear emotionally unstable — is a direct act of domestic violence. Of course the police are just tools. You do not need a college education to carry a gun and a badge. In fact, law enforcement officers themselves have statistically higher rates of domestic violence than any other demographic.

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    2. From one of the articles clipped for this post:

      The Star, it must be acknowledged, got the charges wrong in a Friday digest item that said Dewees had been charged with sexually assaulting two 13-year-olds. There was no assault alleged by police. The distinction is important though it’s doubtful – this too can never be ascertained – such an error (corrected) had much impact on Dewees’ state of mind.

      Some, who knew Dewees, will not accept even the news merit of the story, seeing in the straightforward reporting a malice that didn’t exist. In an email to the Star, one associate wrote: “I worked with this totally decent man at Jarvis Collegiate for several years. It was sickening enough to see the police toss the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ concept out the window by publishing his photo before any legal proceedings had begun. It is disgusting to see that your newspaper gleefully contributed to the damn-the-facts sensationalism.”

      There was no sensationalism. Neither the Star nor the police treated the incident differently from any other charge that appears on a cop blotter. This is a public record. The police and the media cannot make allowances of sensitivity for an accused.

      The column’s about a teacher who killed himself.

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  6. My abuser used false allegations to obtain a fraudulent protective order against me, then accused me of violating the PO multiple times. On one occasion, he accused me of making contact with him on LinkedIn. I did not. We both worked at the same university. University police came to my office in the middle of my work day and in front of my superiors and coworkers – the UPD officer accused me of “violating a domestic violence restraining order”, searched my computer, threatened bullied and harassed me, then left saying that he “would be back”. I was horrified. I cannot describe the utter humiliation this scene caused me. I wanted to die. But instead I fought back and filed a police report against the university and my abuser with the Alaska State Troopers. Of course, no charges of falsifying a police report were ever filed against them. Two weeks later my abuser followed me to work one morning. He noticed me pulling into my office parking lot. I assume this sent him into a complete rage seeing that I did not get fired from my job. He followed me for several days and one night followed me into a pub near the university. I left the premises immediately fearing that he would contact law enforcement against me and drove away. He called police and reported me for a DUI. I lost my job and everything I own. He is now accusing me of violating the protective order again. I am in hiding in a different state, more than 5000 miles away. I don’t know why I continue to hide. I am incarcerated every day. I live in his prison. If you can call it living.

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